xCPS: a tool to explore cyber physical systems

Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) play an important role in the modern high-tech industry. Designing such systems is an especially challenging task due to the multi-disciplinary nature of these systems, and the range of abstraction levels involved. To facilitate hands-on experience with such systems, we develop a cyber-physical platform that aids in both research and education on CPS. This paper describes this platform, which contains all typical CPS components. The platform is used in various research and education projects for bachelor, master, and PhD students. We discuss the platform and illustrate its use with a number of projects and the educational opportunities they provide.